


The Morning After

by phoenixpalmer



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: First Kiss, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-26
Updated: 2014-05-01
Packaged: 2018-01-17 03:44:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1372696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenixpalmer/pseuds/phoenixpalmer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>That one party where everything changed and Michael and Gavin both realised something pretty important.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“Morning Michael, you're looking... chirpy!” Ray said with a short laugh as he watched the barely living zombie that was Michael 'Rage Quit' Jones stumble into the office around 30 minutes late – as expected.

  
“Easy for you to say when you don't fucking drink,” Michael mumbled, his forced scowl relaxing slightly as he spoke as a result of the nausea and headache that had been plaguing him since he managed to get his sorry ass out of bed that morning.

  
“Water man, drink of the champions!” Ray shouted, thrusting his bottle of water into the air; earning a chorus of “Shut up Ray!” from the rest of the Achievement Hunter office who were also cursed with a bad head and everything else that came the morning after one of Ryan's infamous barbecues.

  
Michael sat at his desk, pinching the bridge of his nose then leaning back and closing his eyes. He heard quiet talking from Ray and some laughter after that but his headache was subsiding so he was just extremely thankful that they were being quiet. Hell, for all he cared they could be throwing another party as long as it was at a reasonable volume.

  
After around five minutes of debating whether or not he could get away with actually falling asleep at his desk, he decided to at least turn his computer on so it looked like he was doing something productive. However as soon as the extra light from the bright monitor hit his face, the headache that had been subsiding came back with a vengeance.

He mumbled something about heading to the kitchen to find some mountain dew and painkillers to the rest of the guys and started heading out of the room. Only when he was just about to exit the office did he see something very strange.

Ray, Geoff, Jack and Ryan were all huddled around Ray's desk looking at what seemed to be a phone and giggling. Grown men. Giggling. Curiosity got the better of him and Michael wandered over to have a look at what all the fuss was about.

 

~*~

 

“Come on, one more you lightweights!” Geoff shouted from the side of the table where empty shot glasses which were previously filled with various types of alcohol had been lined up neatly in a row. Now however, the table was filled with empty glasses and small puddles of alcohol as a result of Gavin and Michael's “I bet I can drink more than you!” competition.

“Ugh, I-I think I'm done,” Michael slurred from the plastic, outdoor chair situated next to a now wasted Gavin. He held back a burp, not fully knowing whether it was going to be just air or his lunch that was leaving his mouth.

“Come on Miiiiichaaaaaal, you're not * hic * going squiffy on me are you?!” Gavin teased, weakly punching Michael's arm. He then picked up the last two small glasses, presumably filled with some kind of vodka, and slammed them down on the table in front of them. “Team... Pleasant Boom?” Gavin said as, with a very unsteady hand, he picked up both glasses and held one of them out towards Michael.

 

~*~

 

The group of giggling men quietened down as they saw Michael staring at them intently. Realizing they had been caught and were not expected to give an explanation, they all looked incredibly guilty. Especially Ray.

“Okay, what did I do last night?” Michael asked, figuring that was the only explanation that would count for the guilty faces and clumsily hidden mobile phone. They all looked at each other and began laughing again – resulting in Michael getting increasingly pissed off. He sighed and walked closer to them, causing them to flinch.

“Give me the goddamn phone,” Michael demanded, holding out his hand to receive the phone.

“Just remember, it was you two who did it so don't get pissy at us! Oh and Ray filmed it,” Jack said as he passed Ray's phone over to Michael.

“Hey, fuckin' tattle-tale!” said Ray once he had realized that, after Michael had watched the video, he would more than likely be on the receiving end of the punches that followed.

Michael rewound the video back to the start and pressed the play button, dreading what was coming next. The first thing he heard was his own voice, which made him cringe automatically. You would think someone who's voice gets daily recorded would be used to hearing his own voice played back to him by now, but the truth was that he didn’t really mind when it was on a video; but there was something about those crackly speakers on phones that made his face tense up uncomfortably.

 

~*~

 

“Hey, hey Gavvers!” Michael sung to the general direction in which he believed his British drinking partner to be. He got up off his chair and stumbled over to where he had shouted – eventually finding the man he was looking for. This man was currently studying a beer bottle and mumbling something about 'magic' and 'worlds strongest man'

“Gaaaav, what'cha dooooin'?” Michael drawled, slinging himself over Gavin's back.

“Bloody hell Michael!” Gavin exclaimed as he felt something warm collapse on his back. He could barely hold himself up, never mind anyone else!

“What are you doing you fuck?” Michael asked, more or less falling off Gavin's back and standing at the side of him, watching him faff around with an empty beer bottle.

“Right, are you *hic* watching this?!” Gavin shouted as he dramatically banged his hand on the top of the empty, lidless beer bottle. Nothing happened.

Gavin furrowed his eyebrows while Michael laughed manically at his friend's stupidity which was greatly increased by the amount of alcohol he had had that night. “Oh yeah, that was great, Gavin!” Michael slurred sarcastically.

“It was supposed to sodding break! Why didn't it break?!” Gavin said, confused and waving the bottle around like a mad man. It took a few seconds for Michael, in his drunken state, to realize what on earth Gavin was attempting so persistently to do. When the realization finally hit him however, he started laughing again.

“What? I'd like to see you bloody do it!” Gavin said, stropping.

In between laughs, Michael managed to choke out, “Y-You idiot! There has to be water in that to make it work! You moron!”

Gavin's confused frown was replaced by a thoughtful look. Then the confused face made a reappearance, “Wait, so there's no water in this?” Gavin asked, his eyes looking more droopy by the second.

“No you *hic* dumb shit! Gavin you're a loser,” Michael said, moving closer to the sandy-haired man. “But you're my loser,” he said with a mock sappy tone before pulling Gavin in for a small kiss on the nose.

They both looked shocked for a split second, until Ray chirped up from the background. “Ha, gaaaaaaay!”

Michael and Gavin, upon hearing this, promptly went and tackled Ray to the floor.

 

~*~

 

The video ended and Michael flushed red. There was silence for a second while it sunk in that, yes that was actually him last night and yes he kissed Gavin Free on the nose. He looked up at the four men who were eagerly waiting for his reaction. They all had the same should-we-laugh-or-run expression on their faces as they sat in silence.

“Please Ray, for the love of God, tell me that hasn't ended up on some kind of social networking site,” Michael said to Ray, a if-you-don’t-give-me-the-right-answer-you'd-better-run expression on his face.

“Nah,” Ray replied with a wave of his hand, “I'm saving that one for when I need a favour!”

Michael breathed a sigh of relief, _One less thing to worry about. Speaking of things to worry about, where's Gavin?_

“So where is the shithead himself?” Michael asked casually, not wanting to sound too bothered that he hadn't shown up yet.

“Why? Thinking of continuing from where you left off last night?” Ryan said, winking dramatically.

“Fuck off Ryan,” Michael said with a small smile, indicating that he wasn’t being serious “Did you see him this morning, Geoff?”

“I attempted to get his ass off the couch but I heard him mumble something about 'catching me later',” Geoff replied, scratching his chin. “Will you go get him for me? Griffon's still pretty pissed at me coming in so late last night, so I think she'd be much more willing to answer the door to someone who didn’t stumble into the house at 3am carrying a hammered Gavin while knocking over one of her vases.”

Michael chuckled as he played the scene back in his head. “Sure, you got keys?”

 

~*~

 

He finally arrived at the Ramsay household, after what seemed like a long car journey thinking about the previous night. Since Ray had showed him the video, the gears were beginning to turn inside his head and he began remembering a lot more than he wanted to about last night.

He noticed the lack of any cars which meant that Griffon was out somewhere – leaving Gavin comatose somewhere in the house. Michael walked up the gravelly path and unlocked the door, pondering which approach he should take when he woke Gavin up.

_Okay, I can either be nice guy Michael and make him a coffee or..._

His thoughts trailed off as an evil smile spread across his face. He tiptoed in the door way and up the hall while being as careful as he could not to make any noise that would awake the sleeping idiot. When he finally found Gavin's resting place (the small couch in the living room) he planned his attack. Taking a few steps back, after having moved anything breakable way out of reach, he ran and jumped on the sleeping man who's feet were poking out of the blanket someone, presumably Griffon, had covered him in.

Gavin gave a confused and most likely pained yell as the mass that was Michael landed right in the centre of his stomach. “Michael! Get the hell off me you bloody idiot!” he managed to shout while shoving the now laughing man off his chest. “Christ, what time is it?” he asked, slowly sitting up while holding his head.

“I've been sent to get your sorry ass down to the office, so it's late!” Michael shouted from the floor, very conveniently forgetting his own previous headache while focusing on making Gavin's worse. While getting up and planting himself on the couch next to him, Michael noticed just how rough Gavin looked in his boxers and stained shirt from last night. His hair was stuck up at all angles and his eyes were ridiculously bloodshot.

“God I feel ill,” Gavin stated, leaning to his left and resting his throbbing head on Michael's shoulder. He wriggled slightly so that the space in between Michael's shoulder and head was filled with sandy brown hair.

The sudden close contact stunned him slightly as him and Gavin sat together in a comfortable and much needed silence for a few minutes. Within this time, Michael noticed how his face began to redden and butterflies formed in the base of his stomach while he took the time to quickly glance over Gavin's face. His eyes were closed, making his long eyelashes fan out, which caused it to be nearly impossible to check whether he was asleep or just looking down.

A small amount of stubble was starting to creep it's way across Gavin's jawline and chin – subtly framing his face. Michael never told anyone (obviously; he might have been gay or whatever but it wasn't _that_ obvious) but he loved it when there was only a little bit of stubble on the Brit's face. Not too little to make him look twelve years old but not too much to make him look scruffy. No, this was just right.

He found himself wiping off the small smile that had formed on his face and quickly getting up, causing Gavin to topple over sideways onto the couch while making a rather displeased noise.

“Ugh, Michael I feel craaaaap,” Gavin complained, drawing out the last word to emphasise his point – as if it needed emphasising. “Am I really late?” He asked, looking slightly more concerned than he did at first when the subject of work had come up.

“Not really, and have these,” Michael said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a packet of painkillers he had grabbed before he left the office. They were originally intended for his own use considering that there was only two left, but he figured that Geoff wouldn't mind if he used some of his.

“I can't swallow them dry Michael, they'll make me gag!” Gavin whined as, while sitting back upright, he took the foil packet out of Michael's outstretched hand. Shivering, he wrapped his blanket tighter around him.

“Yeah I know, I'll be back in a minute,” Michael said as he exited the room and went into the kitchen. Gavin's curious eyes followed him until he was out of sight. After Michael was out of sight, Gavin flopped back on the couch – clutching the packet of painkillers.

Memories of the previous night and nights before flooded his mind and before he knew it, his pulse was racing and his face turned a dark shade of crimson. Last night definitely hadn't been the only occasion where him and Michael had... shared an intimate moment. But it was usually wordless, apart from last night.

Neither of them was sure whether or not they wanted it to go anywhere but again, neither of them had the balls to question it. Prior to that night, Gavin would've established straight away where he was with that person relationship-wise but because it was Michael, his best friend and co-worker, he was terrified of saying anything that might disrupt or upset whatever it was they had going on.

 

~*~

 

After the three had recovered from their very own mini WWE in Ryan's back garden and Ray's phone was declared intact, they all headed inside. By this time, mostly everyone had gone home and there was just Ray, Gavin, Michael, Geoff and Ryan left in the house. They were all sat in Ryan's living room having a few drinks before they all thought about heading home.

The small group sat and chatted and joked about everything under the sun for about half an hour and allocated rides home: Geoff would be taking Gavin and Ray would escort a drunk Michael back to his apartment. _'The elevator had better be working...'_ Ray thought, picturing himself attempting to haul Michael up the five flights of stairs to his 2 bedroom apartment.

Just when everyone was talking about setting off, Michael realised that he wasn’t feeling too good due to the wide range of drinks he had that evening and decided to head up to the bathroom. He knew from experience that if he puked in Ray's car, he would be the one cleaning it up – no matter what state he was in. After several attempts, he managed to get himself up off the couch while holding on to the arm of the chair for support.

“Michael, where are you going?” Gavin asked, rising from his seat too quickly and attempting to steady himself on the smaller man's shoulder.

“Toilet,” Michael answered, stopping himself from hiccuping and started making his way out of the room.

“Oh I'll come, I need a piss before we go anyway,” Gavin declared, a lot more coherently that he would've done an hour ago. The two headed up the stairs and ended up on Ryan's landing, both stood at either side of the bathroom door.

“You wanna go first?” Michael asked, noticing that Gavin was fidgeting with his hands and rocking gently on the balls of his feet.

Gavin shook his head and looked up into Michael's hazel eyes. “No, it's not that.” A thin layer of sweat was making its way across the Brit's forehead and his face was growing pinker by the second.

“You okay Gav?” Michael asked, noting these changes that seemed to have happened since the two were truly alone for the first time that evening.

The air was thick with an uneasy silence, something the pair definitely weren't used to at all, making Michael nervous. Gavin stepped forward and began closing the gap between them, making it so that they could each feel the other's alcohol tainted breath warming their faces. Gavin took another step forward and made the gap smaller still.

They were both blushing once there was almost no space between them. Out of the corner of his eye, Michael saw Gavin's hand twitch and before he knew it, Gavin had hooked his index finger around Michael's. “Gavin, what the fuck-”

“Just, quiet for a minute,” Gavin said, cutting Michael off. Once Michael had gotten some idea of what Gavin might be doing, he looked into Gavin's eyes and, however self-conscious it made him, he was unable to tear himself away from the rare severity of the taller man's gaze.

Like many people before him, Michael had long admired the way Gavin looked. His tanned skin that greatly contrasted to his British decent, his golden-brown eyes along with the slightly ruffled hairstyle all added up to him being an exceptionally good looking person with a goofy sort of air to him that was made up by his usual grin and over-sized nose. But standing this close to him, he couldn't help but notice all these things much more in-depth than he usually would. He let his gaze slip, feeling his own face beginning to redden. He had seen Gavin's stupid face hundreds of times, so why did it feel so different today? And why the hell was he noticing all of this sappy stuff about his best fucking friend?!

"Gavin, what is it?" Michael asked, his patience growing very thin. But before he could do anything else, Gavin pulled the whole of Michael's hand and squeezed it – startling him.

“Michael, this is probably the alcohol talking and I'm definitely gonna regret this in the morning but I really like you and I know you don't like me and this whole thing is stupid and I've completely messed up our friendship but I just couldn't not tell you and I'm so sorr-” Gavin was cut off by Michael yanking him forward and pulling him into a messy, rough kiss. They both responded in equal measure, surprising each other. It was sloppy, but it was a kiss. Michael was pleasantly surprised at how non-weird this felt. Gavin's mouth was so warm, the feel of his lips softer than he could have imagined. Gavin tasted tentatively with his tongue, and Michael opened his mouth with a low moan.

The kiss was interrupted by a frustrated sounding voice from downstairs, “Gavin if you don't get your ass down here now I'm going without you!” Geoff called.

They quickly pulled apart, forming a string of saliva between them that was hastily wiped away. “So, we should...” Michael started, scratching the back of his head and looking nowhere but the floor.

“Yeah, I'll just...” Gavin said, looking everywhere but Michael and heading down the stairs – leaving Michael stood on the landing. _Fucking hell..._

 

~*~

 

Gavin was hastily pulled away from his thoughts by the sound of feet approaching from the kitchen. Sitting up, he smiled once he saw Michael arrive in the room and place two cups of steaming liquid on the small table in front of them.

“It's coffee, and before you start bitching it's got two sugars and lots of milk. Happy?”

Gavin smiled happily and picked the cup up carefully along with the tablets. “Thanks Michael,” he said before swallowing the tablets one at a time.

“Anytime Gavvers, didn’t really want to edit that Rage Quit first thing this morning.” Michael said, leaning back onto the couch and taking a long sip of his milky coffee. He sighed and closed his eyes.

“So you're saying you'd rather be here with me?” Gavin asked, a cheeky grin on his face.

“I'm sure people who look as bad as you do this morning are supposed to be one hell of a lot quieter,” Michael commented after taking another sip.

“Do you remember anything from last night?” Gavin asked, braking the comfortable silence that had fallen between the two.

“Uh, kind of... it's all a bit hazy,” Michael said, hovering around the subject for a reason. This reason being that the video that Ray had showed him that morning had jogged his memory a lot further than he had wanted.


	2. Chapter 2

“Do you remember anything from last night?” Gavin asked, braking the comfortable silence that had fallen between the two.

“Uh, kind of... it's all a bit hazy,” Michael said, hovering around the subject for a reason. Said reason being that the video that Ray had showed him that morning had jogged his memory a lot further than he had wanted.

“Right, yeah me too,” Gavin replied, and then proceeded to gulp down the rest of his coffee and get up off the couch. “I'm gonna go and have a quick shower, have I got time?”

Michael, still trying to remember the full details of last night took a second to reply, “What? Oh, yeah sure,” he said, waving his hand in the direction of the staircase. He was thankful for the time alone as he watched Gavin walk away and heard his footsteps pad up the stairs. He grabbed the coffee cups off the table and wandered to the kitchen, deciding it would be a bit of an asshole move to have Griffon and Millie return home to dirty cups and coffee rings on the table.

While washing up, he went back to thinking – definitely not the best idea. What if he actually really liked Gavin? What if, by some miracle of God, Gavin really meant what he said? Was that a good thing? Would it ruin their friendship? So many questions swam through Michael's head that he didn't even realise that he'd washed up all the dishes and bowls on the side, along with the two original cups.

As he looked down into the now murky water, Michael wondered if it was such a bad thing. It's not that he didn't  _want_  to 'go out' with Gavin, the main thing holding him back was the consequences they would have to face if it did happen to go wrong.

That and the fact that Gavin did sometimes spew absolute nonsense when he got drunk. One time he had even unknowingly confessed to being engaged. To Scarlet Johannson. He sighed and splashed the water around before being yanked from his thoughts by an annoying, British voice.

“What are you doing Michael? I thought you said we were going to be late!” Gavin said from behind him. He had gotten dressed and he looked (and smelled) one hell of a lot better than he did when Michael first woke him up.

Michael drained the water and placed a nearby dish-towel over the clean pots. “Yeah yeah, I'm coming asshole,” He wiped his hands on his jeans, reached into his pocket and pulled out his keys.

~*~

It was around 6:30pm when everyone started to finish off their editing for the day and head off home. It had been a pretty much 'run of the mill' day at the Rooster Teeth office; a new Family Feud Lets Play had just been filmed with Gavin, Michael, Geoff and Ray which resulted in tears of laughter and a slightly broken desk which was down to Ray hitting the wrong button and Gavin hitting said desk repeatedly with his controller.

Gavin was just finishing up filming that week's podcast with Gus, Burnie and Barbara when he saw Michael talking to Kerry at the back of the warehouse. As soon as he had been given the all clear that the cameras had stopped rolling he grabbed his jacket and walked in the general direction of Michael and Kerry, saying his goodbyes to the rest of the crew on the way there. “Hey, Kerry! Good day?” Gavin asked, smiling at the man.

“Yeah, just need to run through a few things with the guys in the back and then I'm done for the day! I'll leave you two to it, bye guys!” Kerry replied and headed off into the back room, leaving Michael and Gavin standing opposite each other.

“So Gavin, you up for some games and bevs at mine?” Michael proposed, he figured he should give Gavin a chance to talk about what happened the previous night. And even if the conversation wasn’t meant to be, it would at least clear the air between the two.

“Yeah, I just need to turn off my computer and get my things. I'll meet you in the car-park?” Gavin asked, pointing in the general direction of the door.

“Sure, hurry up!” Michael said as he walked off.

As Gavin was walking back to the office, he bumped into Jack. “Alright Jack? I thought you'd gone home!”

“Nah, I'm meeting Caiti here and we're heading off to that Italian place downtown. You off anywhere?” Jack asked.

“Yeah actually,” Gavin replied, grinning, “I'm going round to Michael's for a drink,”

A smile began to form on Jack's face as he spoke, “Well, you kids have fun!” As he walked off, Gavin would've sworn he heard Jack mutter something like 'Use protection!'

Shrugging the incident off, he walked down the white hallway and entered the Achievement Hunter office.

Within a few minutes, everything had been shut down and Gavin was all packed to go. He took a deep breath before leaving the building. What would he say if Michael asked about the previous night? And, even worse, what would he do if Michael remembered everything from the previous night?!

_I've made a complete fool out of myself, I never should have told him anything! I should have just let it go and gotten over it like any normal adult man would d-_

Gavin got wrenched from his thoughts by the curb that he had just tripped over. As a direct result of not having the quickest reaction times in the world, he landed nose first on the hard pavement. His hands took most of the force off the blow but they didn’t stop his face coming into slight contact with the ground. Shaken, he managed to stand himself up as he heard a car door slam and footprints come dashing towards him.

“Holy shit Gavin, are you okay?” Michael asked, putting his hand on Gavin's shoulder.

Gavin looked up and he saw the ghost of a grin on Michael's face. “Yeah you dope, I'm fine,”

“Me a dope?! You're the one who just went face-fucking-first on the pavement you idiot!” After checking that Gavin was actually okay, Michael started to laugh. “Come on, get your clumsy ass in the car.”

~*~

From there on it was just like any normal game night at Michael's: they ordered pizza and played on all the games they didn't go on at work that day. After a few rounds of Call of Duty: Ghosts, they both settled on Mario Kart for the Wii.

The competition was fierce and after Michael's 3rd and Gavin's 2nd lap on Rainbow Road, the room was littered with pizza crusts and there were pillows everywhere barring the sofa.

By the time the Special Cup was complete, throats were raw from shouting, stomachs hurt from laughing and there was a severely cracked Wii controller lying on the coffee table in the centre of the lounge. Gavin announced that it was time to open the bevs and headed off into Michael's kitchen to get them.

Whilst Gavin was out of the room, Michael started to clean up a little. “I wish that he would just bring it up already,” he muttered to himself as he reached down the side of his chocolate brown suite and pulled out a pizza crust. That evening, it had been plainly obvious that Gavin was trying to catch Michael's attention and not knowing what to say.

The glances across the room that were quickly taken back and the amount of times Gavin had opened his mouth to say something then quickly shut it told Michael all he needed to know.

The brown-haired Brit re-entered the room with a four pack of Carling and set them down on the floor. “So what do you want to play now?” he asked as he passed Michael a can and plonked himself next to the curly haired Jersey boy on the couch.

“Gavin,” Michael said with determination _._

“Michael?” Gavin asked, not really paying attention and taking a sip of his beer.

Clenching and unclenching his fists, Michael took a dive. “I lied before, when I said I don't remember anything,” he started, “I remember  _every single thing_  that happened last night.”

Gavin quickly swallowed and placed his can on the floor, lingering there. The stunned silence that lay in the wake of those words was unbearable, both knowing that they should say something but both having no idea just what to say.

As he was the one who brought it up in the first place, Michael felt the responsibility to cut through the quiet and continued, “I don't know what you want to do about it, but I know that I don't just want to forget it and pretend like it didn’t happen cause that would suck,” he looked down at his slightly shaking hands and clasped them together, “but I don't want to hurt us either.”

Gavin's face was a picture. If it weren't for the circumstances, Michael would've laughed at the stunned facial expression the younger man was pulling. Widened eyes and a barely gaping mouth along with the raised eyebrows made the reaction that Michael was more or less expecting.

“You mean you remember what I said?” Gavin asked, not able to keep eye contact for more than a few seconds. By this point, red was beginning to flush up from the base of his neck and was steadily creeping along his face.

“Yeah I do,” Michael stated then sighed, rubbing his eyes and placing his head in his hands.

Gavin leaned over slightly, “Michael?”

“Did you mean it, Gavin?” he said, looking up suddenly.

Gavin looked down at the floor, “Yeah, yeah I did.” Michael was silent.

“So you're just not going to say anything?” Gavin asked, looking up at Michael desperately.

“No.” Michael said, a small smile beginning to curl edges of his mouth.

“No? What do you mean no?!”

In one swift move, Michael leaned over and planted his lips on Gavin's. His hand cupping Gavin's cheek and stroking his stubble gently with his thumb. He pulled away.

“Right, well...” Gavin said, his face now burning.

Michael laughed and they both dove back into the kiss. It was so much better than the first time, it felt less rushed and the knowledge was there that they both felt  _something_  for each other.

Michael finally felt Gavin smile and relax into his touch. He was being careful not to feel too much, but when Gavin placed his hand among the auburn curls at the back of Michael's head and pushed – that was the only motivation needed. The hand that was previously grazing over the short stubble on Gavin's face moved round to the back of his neck.

Michael's mouth opened and Gavin flicked his tongue across Michael's – earning a soft moan from the other man and goosebumps to shimmer across his own face.

As a result of Gavin's obvious need to carry on, Michael's confidence rose and he slid his free hand up Gavin's thigh then stopping about three quarters of the way up. In response to this, Gavin slid his own hand up the side of Michael's toned chest, his fingernails lightly scraping on his pale skin. He smiled and pulled away as he felt the Jersey Boy shiver under his touch.

“Sorry,” Gavin said with a sly smile. He wet his lips and continued, “Didn't mean to do that,”

“It's okay,” Michael panted. Both of their cheeks were flushed and his ears felt red hot.

“You want to carry on?”

“Not now,” Michael said, sitting himself back upright and slowly detaching himself from the warmth that seemed to radiate off Gavin.

“Oh, God, sorry Michael,” Gavin said, drawing back a lot quicker and further away than he would've liked. “I didn't mean to take things so fast! I'm sor-”

Michael cut in, “No, it's not you and its definitely not that I didn’t like it but I just don't want all this to be over right away, you know?” he reached over and squeezed Gavin's hand.

Gavin smiled understandingly, “Okay, I'm just glad this,” he gestured between them with his hand, “is happening!”

Michael laughed, “Yeah and if you manned up and grew some balls a couple of weeks ago it could've been happening for a lot fucking longer!”

“So we're okay?” he asked.

“Yeah Gavin, we're okay.”

They both smiled and squeezed each other's hands. “So...” Michael trailed off.

“Bet I can kick your arse in Mortal Combat!” Gavin exclaimed while jumping off the couch and heading for the game rack.

 Michael laughed as he watched Gavin hop over to the shelf in the corner of the room, “You're on!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it for this fic! Thank you so much to everyone that read it and especially to the lovely commenter Nobodybutaflower! Yes I realised that Ray does not in fact drive halfway through writing this chapter but let's all live in hope. There are more on the way once exams are over, so watch this space :)


End file.
